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Branstad and Republican House Speaker Kraig Paulsen say Iowa's improved economy has eased some of the budget pressure of the past four years, enough to open a discussion of higher spending for education and job protection for public workers. The state's unemployment rate of 5.1 percent in November was the fourth-lowest in the country, the result largely of what has been a stable farm economy.

Divided government isn't a new experience in Iowa. Although Republicans dominated in the late 1990s and Democrats did six years ago, balance has been the norm. The state has had one Democratic and one Republican U.S. senator for 28 years (Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley, respectively). During that time, Iowa had a Republican governor — Branstad — for 16 years and a Democratic governor for 12. The four House seats are split evenly.

Iowa's redistricting process is a factor. Unlike in other states, the congressional and legislative maps are drawn by a team of non-partisan analysts rather than legislative committees. Thus, the results more accurately reflect the state's partisan balance.

Again in this election, "For better or worse, the electorate did not say, 'OK, one party, we're going to take your philosophy on everything and ignoring the other,'" said David Roederer, a veteran Branstad adviser and Iowa's budget director.

The parties took a more partisan tack in the last legislative session, with the result that, other than passing some pressing budget control measures, little else was accomplished. Gronstal says 2013 provides a ripe opportunity for compromise before the approaching 2014 elections heighten partisan tensions. Branstad, who was governor in the 1980s and 1990s before running again in 2010, is expected to stand for re-election.

Except for lawmakers in Kentucky and New Hampshire — the other two states with divided legislative control — those elsewhere can barely imagine what Iowa expects to experience. In Oklahoma, where Republicans hold every statewide elected office and supermajorities in the House and the Senate, Democrats weren't invited to the budget talks with the governor's office. In Minnesota, where Democrats won both chambers this year and hold the governor's office, Republicans are expecting a parade of Democratic policy initiatives.

"There isn't really anything we can participate in unless asked," said outgoing Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Zellers, a Republican.

Don't forget that New York's legislature is divided as well... the alliance between the Republican and Independent Democratic Caucuses in the State Senate outnumbers the Democratic Caucus even though the Democrats won a majority on election day.